PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Norman Tate is an assistant track coach at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. He has an extraordinary resume in track and field, including an appearance in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
Tate was an elite athlete in his day. In addition to competing in the '68 Olympics in the triple jump, he also made headlines at the Penn Relays, winning the triple jump there in 1963.
"I'll never forget, that Friday morning I woke up and I felt as sick as a dog. Nauseous and stuff, I think it was more nerves than anything. Coach took me to get something to eat. We go to Franklin Field and it was the first time I had ever been on the field," he recalled.
"And so... I won. My coach was just as excited as I was because it was so unexpected. I came back to the room, my roommate was still in the bed. He pulled the covers from over his head and he said, 'How'd you do?' I said, 'I won!' He said, 'Get out of here, you didn't win!' I said, 'I did. I got a watch!'"
The following year, Tate would be named the Outstanding Athlete at the 1964 Penn Relays.
Tate has coached hundreds of athletes at all different levels at multiple stops. He loves coaching, but says he's not quite as intense as he was earlier in his coaching career:
"My wife used to tell me, 'You know, you're going to have a heart attack at a track meet one day,'" he said, "because when I first started coaching, I'd get so excited. Kids (are) running and I'm running, they're jumping and I'm jumping in my seat and she said, 'You're going to have a heart attack!'"
You can listen to the entire interview with Norman Tate by checking out the latest episode of the KYW Newsradio original podcast, "1-on-1 with Matt Leon." Subscribe on the RADIO.COM app or wherever you get your podcasts.
